Ok, I never played club, I played street football and in school etc.
Had a club game today, played both halves, although came on and off.
1st Half run down.First touch was good, controlled everything with the studs, played as a DM, tried to stay in position, but did not, I was constantly moving out of position and had difficulty reading other players' movements.
key passes I had were a bit under-hit, but most of them got through. Did a lot more work off the ball, covered a lot of distance, forced the opposition into errors.
Second half didn't start but came on later. A lot more disciplined this half, played as LM, I suppose roving between the centre of pitch and LW. Key moment in the beginning of the half was when I tried a deft control of the ball (a la Zidane), near the touchline...touch was not heavy, but did not take it away from the opposition. ball went over the line for their throw.
From the throw they ran down their right flank and scored. I am not sure if I would say that was my error, since the ball went dead...and it wasn't exactly a scoring position, they worked it.
Won the ball quite a number of times, managed some sideways passes a la Mikel. Once again the control was very good, no heavy touches. even controlled first time with the weak foot on the outside. Didn't try to beat my man, but would dummy and release. Worked hard, and the moment came. Ran with the ball in the centre and released it to a teammate who looped it over the keeper. Was happy with that Assist.
Late into the 2nd half, I was really getting into the game, but tried to do too much. Still not in my A game, lost the ball on the left flank twice? Once when we were trying to press for a goal. But managed to keep us alive as well, won a good header in the centre. Biggest question mark moment was in the centre of the pitch. I was LM/LW, but there was a massive hole in the CM, ball came flying into the midfield, about 5-7 metres from where I was, nobody picked it up, they ran with it and scored. That wasn't my position, but should perhaps have covered it. But in reality I couldn't.....fitness was hard, 1st competitive game ever, and at that moment I was picking my battles.
I did have some good forward passes as well, perhaps some were tight.....put a lot more weight on the passes in the second half and got a lot of touches in the middle of the park. Fortunately for me, they would back off me and let me settle on the ball, before I started advancing....huseless players.
To be honest, I would have liked to have played forward, but I wasn't fit enough to be making those runs. I did feel I could have struck the ball better than most on the pitch today, but I took zero shots on.
We lost the game 5-4. I do think I could have won the game for them, if I played better, but I did my best..I hadn't played with them before and was struggling for fitness.